Air passengers and air freight (aircraft cargo) are often screened before an aircraft is loaded. The object of pre-flight screening is to detect prohibited goods and prevent them being loaded onto an aircraft.
Screening generally takes place at the airport where the aircraft is scheduled to depart. Passengers are screened by specially trained airport staff (or sometimes police) in a segregated area prior to departure gates. Air freight is also screened within the airport. Some forms of screening may also be undertaken at the destination airport (such as narcotic screening).
Specific forms of screening include inspection by purpose trained dogs (‘sniffer’ dogs), physical searches, metal detection scanning, passenger imaging (including controversial whole body scanning), cargo content imaging and surface testing for the presence of explosive residue.
Various forms of screening may be employed by airport authorities. Some forms of screening may be used by authorities to target specific prohibited goods. As a result, passenger and/or cargo may endure several stages of screening and different screening techniques before entering the aircraft. In some instances suspect passengers or cargo may be identified for additional screening.
Some prohibited goods that may be the subject of pre-flight screening include weapons or potential weapons (such as sharp objects, firearms or explosives), flammable goods (such as matches, lighters and flammable fluids), animals (particularly endangered specifies), narcotics, chemical warfare agents, biological warfare agents, nuclear or radiological agents, ammunitions, toxic industrial chemicals or waste, embargoed or smuggled items (such as tobacco) and explosives or other volatiles.
In this specification where reference has been made to patent specifications, other external documents, or other sources of information, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the invention. Unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to such external documents is not to be construed as an admission that such documents, or such sources of information, in any jurisdiction, are prior art, or form part of the common general knowledge in the art.